Softball: Ford’s big swing carries Caravel to victory

WILMINGTON – With one out in the top of the ninth inning, Charter of Wilmington pitcher Meghan Cowan completely fooled Caravel’s Brittany Ford with a first-pitch changeup.

Ford couldn’t be fooled twice. The junior first baseman belted the next pitch over the center-field fence for a solo home run as the second-ranked Buccaneers rallied for a 5-4 softball victory over the No. 3 Force on Thursday.

“She got me. I chased it,” Ford said of the first pitch. “I knew she got me on the first one, so I was ready. I had to compose myself and just get in the box and get ready to hit.

“It was just my kind of pitch, the ones I like. So I saw it and I just swung as hard as I could.”

Ford’s drive soothed some frustration for Caravel (6-3), which was coming off a 2-1, nine-inning loss at No. 1 Laurel on Tuesday.

“This was a big win for us,” Ford said. “We definitely needed it. We needed to come back and fight from that loss, and we did it.”

The Buccaneers jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first, with Kiera Swank and Chloe Kennedy delivering RBI singles and a Charter error also playing a key role.

Both teams committed errors that led to four unearned runs in the next 2½ innings, with Caravel taking a 4-3 lead into the fourth. It stayed that way until the bottom of the seventh, when the Force scratched out the tying run. Jordan Schoeneberger walked, Kylie Shivery was hit by a pitch and Emily Smith’s single scored Schoeneberger to send the game into extra innings.

Ford homered in the top of the ninth, and Caravel pitcher Holly Brooks got out of another jam in the bottom of the ninth. Schoeneberger hit a two-out single, and Shivery walked after a 13-pitch at-bat – including two potential doubles down the left-field line that bounced foul by less than 5 feet. But Brooks coaxed Smith into a groundout to end the game.

“You really have to have poise,” Brooks said. “If you don’t have poise, a lot of things can go out of control and you can end up losing.”

The Force (7-1) had Brooks on the ropes all day, putting at least one runner on base in eight of the nine innings and hitting into inning-ending double plays with the bases loaded in the first and fifth.

“It’s all about fighting, staying in the game every inning, and I think that’s what we did,” Brooks said. “It really showed our perseverance.”

Charter stranded 10 runners in scoring position.

“We had plenty of opportunities, two people on, three people on,” Force coach Eileen Voltz said. “We played great defense, and unfortunately just couldn’t get that last run.”

Charter racked up a 49-5 regular-season record over the last three seasons but was unable to advance past the second round of the state tournament. The schedule is much tougher this year – including games against Padua, Caravel, Red Lion Christian, Polytech and Indian River – so the Force should be battle-tested going into the postseason.

“I think people might look at us playing Caravel and look at the score and be surprised,” Voltz said. “But we really believe we can play with anybody in the state. Now we have some things we need to clean up, but we feel pretty confident.”